Prayer is not so much an act as it is an attitude—an attitude of
dependency, dependency upon God. Prayer is a confession of creature
weakness, yea, of helplessness. Prayer is the acknowledgment of our need
and the spreading of it before God. We do not say that this is all
there is in prayer, it is not: but it is the essential, the primary
element in prayer. We freely admit that we are quite unable to give a
complete definition of prayer within the compass of a brief sentence, or
in any number of words. Prayer is both an attitude and an act, a human
act, and yet there is the Divine element in it too, and it is this which
makes an exhaustive analysis impossible as well as impious to attempt.
But admitting this, we do insist again, that prayer is fundamentally an
attitude of dependency upon God. Therefore, prayer is the very opposite
of dictating to God. Because prayer is an attitude of dependency, the
one who really prays is submissive, submissive to the Divine will; and
submission to the Divine will means, that we are content for the Lord to
supply our need according to the dictates of His own sovereign
pleasure. And hence it is that we say, every prayer that is offered to
God in this spirit is sure of meeting with an answer or response from
Him… Prayer is not the requesting of God to alter His purpose or for Him
to form a new one. Prayer is the taking of an attitude of dependency
upon. God, the spreading of our need before Him, the asking for those
things which are in accordance with His will, and therefore there is
nothing whatever inconsistent between Divine sovereignty and Christian
prayer. ~ A.W.Pink
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